Moumin Albibi (25) started volunteering for Sheltersuit six years ago. Now he is one of our full-time employees. ‘Logistics employee,’ Moumin says with a laugh. ‘I arrange everything here at the studio.’
Moumin was born in Damascus, in Syria. ‘When I was eight years old, my father had a clothing factory. Growing up, I wanted to become a clothing merchant like him.’
Moumin still has that dream. In addition to his work at Sheltersuit, he has started as a self-employed worker. He makes pillowcases and sells them to stores.
Due to the increasing demand for Sheltersuits from aid organizations, we need 16,500 sleeping bags to make our Sheltersuits this year, in our workshop in the Netherlands.
“The more sleeping bags we can collect, the more Sheltersuits we can produce to eventually give warmth to the unsheltered. We need three sleeping bags to make one suit.”
Moumin explains why it is so important to get sleeping bags in.
After we receive the donated sleeping bags, they first go into the washing machine. Then they are hung out to dry.
Moumin: ‘From the cleaned sleeping bags, we cut the patterns for the Sheltersuits.’
“Sheltersuit feels like one big family.”
‘My father may have been a clothes merchant, but I couldn’t handle a sewing machine at all,’ Moumin says, laughing.
‘I learned all that at Sheltersuit: cutting, sewing, putting on buttons. If I didn’t understand something, I could ask others. We always help each other; Sheltersuit feels like one big family.’
And this is the Sheltersuit Moumin has been working on: a wind and waterproof jacket, with hood, built-in scarf and pockets, that can be transformed into a sleeping bag.
Sheltersuit needs sleeping bags and you can help!
Donate your old sleeping bag at Dutch thrift store Het Goed or send it to us directly. By doing so, you will contribute to our mission to protect our unsheltered friends.
In addition, your sleeping bag ensures that our social workshop in the Netherlands can continue to produce Sheltersuits and thus create permanent employment.
